The NCAA will cast a vote in 20 days that could alter the operations and oversight of college sports’ governing body in favor of revenue-rich schools such as Ohio State.

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith is confident that the vote by the Division I board of directors will grant the autonomous power sought by the five wealthiest conferences, including the Big Ten.

“I think the outcome is going to be highly positive,” Smith said. “I think in the end, we’ll be able to do what we want to do for our student-athletes in our types of institutions.”

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An eight-member NCAA governance steering committee, including new Ohio State president Michael Drake and Wright State president David Hopkins, will give its final recommendation on a new governance structure to the board on Aug. 7.

If approved, a proposed weighted voting system would provide more autonomy to the 65 schools in the Big Ten, Southeastern, Big 12, Pac-12 and Atlantic Coast conferences on certain issues such as having a stipend to help athletes meet the full cost of attendance.

The power conferences are already using the bully pulpit to float the threat of breaking away from Division I to form a new division under the NCAA if the board doesn’t grant them sufficient power.

On Monday, SEC commissioner Mike Slive said at his league’s football media days that if the five power conferences don’t get the autonomy they seek, then “we will need to consider the establishment of a venue with similar conferences and institutions where we can enact the desired changes.”

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany told Sports Illustrated in late June that he’s about 80 percent certain the desired autonomy will be approved by the board, which includes Drake, Hopkins and Ohio University president Roderick McDavis.

Delany is expected to address the matter when he gives his annual speech to open the Big Ten football media days on July 28.

“We have strong support from our presidents,” Smith said. “Mike Slive and Jim Delany don’t make their comments without the support of the individual institutions, which means the presidents have signed off on it.

“So each conference in the top five has gone through a process to get agreement from the presidents that if these things aren’t in place, at the vote, then we have to look at a different structure. That’s why you’ll hear during football media days the gauntlet being laid down.”

The proposal from the NCAA steering committee calls for a super-majority model (two-thirds approval) for legislation to pass. The five power leagues want a 60 percent threshold.

“That’s the one issue, and I believe it’s the only one, that is kind of a line in the sand, that if we can’t get that dealt with, then we’ve got to do something else,” Smith said.

The steering committee met last week to discuss feedback from all Division I conferences regarding the governance model it proposed in the spring.

“I know that the steering committee was amendable to changing that (voting threshold),” Smith said. “The other conferences are supportive of changing that going into the conversation. … I think they’re going to solve it. I think by the end of the day, nobody wants the top five to break away.”

The five power conferences seek increased autonomy in part because legislation for a $2,000 stipend for athletes was initially passed in 2011, only to have a majority of the 347 members in Division I override the proposal.

“The top 65 are different,” Smith said. “Our resources are significantly different than the other schools. We have the capacity to do more things for our student-athletes that other schools can’t do. … We should be allowed to do those.”

Smith said if the governance structure is approved by the board on Aug. 7, he expects the five power conferences to begin creating cost-of-attendance legislation that could be voted on in January at the NCAA annual convention.